Big crowd, big win, good vibes for Huntsville Stars in home opener

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - A terrific crowd. A semi-dramatic home run. A win for the home team. Fireworks.

If you have to have the beginning of the end, this wasn't a bad way to do it.

The Huntsville Stars' final home season - for the foreseeable future - opened Wednesday night, with a win and some electricity.

Then there was this symbolic moment:

As the air hung heavy with the smoke from fireworks and cars oozed out of the parking lot, there went Miles Prentice, the team's erstwhile majority owner, wheeling carry-on luggage from the stadium and into a waiting rental car.

AL.com Opinion

About the writerMark McCarter began working with The Huntsville Times in 1998 and writes columns on news and sports for the Alabama Media Group. Reach him at mmccarter@al.com.

The Stars went off and stretched their winning streak to five, one shy of the longest streak from all of 2013. They got a tie-breaking seventh-inning home run from Nick Ramirez, one of the few players who no previous Huntsville tenure.

And they drew an announced crowd of 5,297.

Tell me again why they're moving to Biloxi in 2015???

"You could feel a little presence behind our players," said manager Carlos Subero, in his first home game as Stars manager. "They had a good vibe going."

Opening night attendance is never a perfect barometer, but when cars are still waiting to turn off the Memorial Parkway access road and onto Don Mincher Drive into the stadium at the game's first pitch, it's an encouraging sight.

"I'm hoping it wasn't just an opening day thing. We got a lot of good feedback tonight," said general manager Buck Rogers, who related a conversation with a long-time resident who admitted he hadn't been to a game in six years - "guilty as charged," the fan said - but promised to return.

It's something a potential new owner might notice, should somebody be willing to relocate to Huntsville to a ballpark more appealing and modern than the current digs.

"The cause is good and I hope everybody rallies behind it," Rogers said.

It's something the former owner couldn't help see.

Prentice, who never attended a single home game in 2013 when he was the team's majority owner, was planted in the box seats Wednesday night for this opener, though he is but a minority partner these days.

Go figure.

Prentice sold the club to Ken Young - previously noted as the owner you wish had galloped in on a white horse for Huntsville eight or 10 years ago - as part of the process to move the franchise to Biloxi for next year.

Prentice's involvement and investment in the franchise has been negligible - he'll remind you he purchased the scoreboard, but it hasn't worked properly since the Clinton Administration - and much of the franchise's downfall and now departure can be blamed for that.

Prentice was joined in the stands by Gord Ash, the Brewers' vice president, and Scott Martens, the director of business operations for Milwaukee's minor league system.

Gentlemen, start your pandering.

Biloxi could be an attractive spot for Milwaukee to have its Double-A team, but this is the season for working agreements to be renewed or changed throughout baseball, and could be Biloxi doesn't think the Brewers would be attractive enough for its new park.

It was Ash who famously observed in a July 2009 interview after watching a game attended by 660 fans:

"This is a very apathetic baseball town, and something's going to have to change. They're going to be sorry in a couple of years when they don't have baseball. I don't know if they're going to lose the team, but they're going to lose our interest in being here because there's no enthusiasm."

It wasn't inaccurate then, and certainly recent history has proved him right. Ash actually served a valuable purpose to begin the conversation about baseball's future and a potential new park, forcing a community's introspective look at its interests.